Turning the #DebtCeiling Crisis Against McCarthy’s Republicans.
Biden needs to play serious hardball, or he will get rolled. https://prospect.org/politics/2023-01-17-debt-ceiling-mccarthy-republicans-biden/
Basically saying to ignore the #DebtLimit and let it go to #SCOTUS. Not that I have faith in court conservatives but there’s apparently 14th amendment & 1868 precedent backing him up.
“Biden could announce that he is not going to play the Republicans’ game and relitigate spending that has already been approved by Congress.”
I think this is missing that the legislative branch doesn't spend money; it only authorizes the executive branch to spend money assuming there is any to spend.
If the executive runs out of money, then he's out and he has to stop spending more regardless of what Congress may have authorized.
He doesn't get to just borrow more unilaterally as that would commit the US to obligations that the peoples' representatives didn't agree to.
@volkris
It’s impossible for the federal government to “run out of” US dollars. Dollars are created when Congress authorizes spending. It’s fiat money. Also, the debt limit issue is about spending that’s already been authorized. Re my first point:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DNCZHAQnfGU
OF COURSE the federal government can run out of US dollars. The Treasury has a specific and finite balance at any one time.
Check out this website from the Treasury that specifies exactly how many dollars it has each day, the amount beyond which it would run out.
NO dollars aren't created when Congress authorizes spending. Congress is not an executive branch so it couldn't create dollars if it wanted to.
Permission to spend is not only not spending, an executive function in itself, but it has nothing to do with the creation of dollars.
You're really misunderstanding how the US government functions here, with its separation of powers.
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/daily-treasury-statement/operating-cash-balance
In the clip Greenspan says there's nothing preventing the federal government from creating more money. That is of course true.
But it's not relevant here, since we're not talking about creating more money; this isn't legislation on the table "To coin Money" as Article I provides for.
Congress COULD legislate and the president execute a law to count another trillion dollars tomorrow. But that's not what the debt ceiling is, nor is it what an appropriations bill says.
Thank goodness.
An appropriations bill merely authorizes the spending of existing money. That's it.
@volkris
You say “An appropriations bill merely authorizes the spending of existing money.”
If that were true, UST wouldn’t need to issue debt securities and debt would never have grown. I’m done here. Respond if you like. You’ll get the last word.
They issue debt securities, with permission of Congress, to obtain the money to spend.
They are two different processes that Congress by tradition treats as separate matters.
They could always authorize deficit spending and authorize new debt issuance in the same legislation, but they don't, which is how we end up in these situations.
@volkris
So you know better than Alan Greenspan about how monetary operations work?